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SIEUSOIL OBSERVATORY FOR INTELLIGENT LAND USE MANAGEMENT
  • Home
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Corn belt farmland has lost a third of its carbon-rich soil

Homepage Enviroment Corn belt farmland has lost a third of its carbon-rich soil
Enviroment

Corn belt farmland has lost a third of its carbon-rich soil

May 26, 2021
By Ioanna Antonopoulou
0 Comment
2575 Views

More than one-third of the Corn Belt in the Midwest – nearly 30 million acres – has completely lost its carbon-rich topsoil, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst research that indicates the U.S. Department of Agriculture has significantly underestimated the true magnitude of farmland erosion.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by UMass Amherst graduate student Evan Thaler, along with professors Isaac Larsen and Qian Yu in the department of geosciences, developed a method using satellite imagery to map areas in agricultural fields in the Corn Belt of the Midwestern U.S. that have no remaining A-horizon soil. The A-horizon is the upper portion of the soil that is rich in organic matter, which is critical for plant growth because of its water and nutrient retention properties. The researchers then used high-resolution elevation data to extrapolate the satellite measurements across the Corn Belt and the true magnitude of erosion.

access the paper

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Monday, 5, Dec
World Soil Day 2022
Friday, 18, Nov
SIEUSOIL final event
Friday, 7, Oct
SIEUSOIL at the 22nd World Congress of Soil Science
Friday, 22, Jul
National Geographic reports
Wednesday, 29, Jun
Mineral fertiliser consumption remained high in 2020
Friday, 17, Jun
What do you know about soil?

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